Cactus Game Design Message Boards

Alright y'all, because I'm not planning on going to Nats this year, this is what I would have played. The "1.0" version of this deck, which I ran last year in Knoxville, included a Throne splash with Samuel/Jonathan/David God's King, Throne of David and some additional purple support with a totally different defense. It was a complete failure partially due to my many misplays, but mostly because the design itself was flawed and bloated with too many different themes. The idea for this deck started on the car ride back from Knoxville to Kansas. Josh Potratz said something like "Surely there is a good white deck that runs Tabernacle". So I modeled this deck after Josh's #JetPriest and this is what I came up with.

50 cards:
Lost Souls:
1   Lost Soul (Hunter)
1   Lost Soul (Remant)
1   Lost Soul (Wanderer) (FoM)
1   Lost Soul (Prosperity)
1   Lost Soul (Covet)
1   Lost Soul (Humble)
1   Lost Soul (Jeremiah 22:3) (Orphans)

Dominants:
1   Angel of the Lord (G)
1   The Second Coming
1   Son of God (I)
1   Falling Away (Wo)
1   Christian Martyr (J)
1   Three Woes (RoJ)
1   Chronicles of the Kings (LoC)

Neutral:
1   The Ends of the Earth (RoJ)
1   Book of the Covenant (PoC)
1   Endless Treasures
1   Lost Soul (Hopper) (FoM)

Fortresses:
1   The Tabernacle (Promo)

Heroes:
1   Esther, the Courageous (PoC)
1   Hannah
1   Chenaniah
1   Music Leader
1   The Twenty-Four Elders (RoJ)
1   Asaph
1   Jephthah's Daughter
1   David, Heart After God / David, the Contrite (LoC)

Speed GEs:
1   Covenant with David (PoC)
1   Love Righteousness
1   Temple Dedication
1   First Fruits
1   Consider the Lilies
1   Fifth Seal, Justice Seekers (RoJ)

Battle GEs:
1   Royal Parade (LoC)
1   Word of Christ
1   Passover Hymn
1   Overcome! (RoJ)

Evil Characters:
1   Fire Foxes
1   Scribe
1   Lot's Wife
1   Proud Pharisee
1   High Priest Ananias (RoJ)
1   The Sanhedrin
1   The Priests of Zeus
1   Outsiders (Black/Gold) (RoJ)

Evil Enhancements:
1   The Wages of Sin (FoM)
1   Stone of Thebez (RoA)
1   Seized by Rioters
1   Plot to Kill (RoJ)
1   Seize Him! (RoJ)

Reserve:
1   Rain Becomes Dust
1   You Will Remain
1   Flying Scroll (PoC)
1   Covenant of Prayer (RoJ)
1   The Angel of the Winds
1   Unsuccessful (PoC)
1   Gamaliel's Speech
1   Jephthah (J)
1   Hate Wickedness
1   Paying Taxes


Most of the card selections are pretty self explanatory. Tabernacle is basically there to keep me from having to choose between Book/YWR and Endless Treasures. The offense rolls Chen/Elders and Esther as the main rescues. Hannah provides a pretty nice drawing option and Jephthah's daughter is somehow an unexpected play to take out annoying ECs. I don't rescue much with Asaph but it's always good to have a CBN option. Temple Dedication is a reallly sick card that almost no one seems to play. The defense is definitely built for the PoC meta but I still think it's very relevant. Play first Unsuccessful is the most consistent block in the game, and Hawkeye is one of, if not the best ECs out there. Stone is still really good even without the CBN modifier. I probably should be playing a band counter like Scattered Sheep but I couldn't fit it in without fundamentally changing the makeup of the defense. This deck really is not that dissimilar to the RoJ era Musician builds like mine or MasterQ's, but the additions of Tabernacle/Book, Esther and David really make it busted.

I was inching close towards something like this, although I know what I would play if I got to go to nationals as well, I just have big tournaments between now and then (if they aren't canceled. Haven't sent in for them yet due to covid). This deck is super solid looking.

Yeah, I actually wasn't even sure I would play this after LoC came out, but the new David is way better than I thought and Royal Parade is just a straight upgrade over Faith of Moses's Parents. And CotK means you should almost always win negate wars.

I do like seeing some different versions of this. I have a list that's updated with LoC of a version of this deck I would play were I to play any T1-2p this year (which seems very unlikely) that I might post soon.

Few Qs for you:

Does Tabernacle do enough to warrant its inclusion? If all it does is hold Book, and all Book does is hold YWR, there's got to be a better option...

Passover Hymn was something I'd wanted in my old version ever since my FoM list you linked here, but I found it just wasn't needed. Being able to get rid of curses is nice, but CwD stops it from being played outside of battle, and that's the only relevant curse 3 Woes can't hit. So I could never justify having another negate. But you are more musician-based than I ever was, so maybe that's a contributing factor.

Is Word o' Christ worth it now? With ML as your only clay Hero, I would hesitate to include it even if ignore wasn't changed. I don't include it in my build, but I haven't actually played a game with my deck yet apart from drawing it up myself to see how it goes.

No Deceiver?

I can definitely see an argument for cutting Tabernacle. However, in my experience with the deck, being able to have both Book/YWR and Endless Treasures/RBD up at the same time is worth it. It also lets me recur Consider the Lilies which has mattered occasionally.

I think I originally included Passover Hymn more as an RBD counter which seemed to be in every deck at least in the PoC meta. It's probably less important to have now that Chronicles of the King exists but I can't think of an involves music GE I would rather have.

Word of Christ is an oversight on my part from pre-LoC when I was playing Polycarp and purple/clay John. If I were playing this again, I might have to cut Fifth Seal for Polycarp... Or maybe I can finally play the Lord fights for You?

I'd love to play Deceiver but the list is pretty tight and I also don't have ECs in reserve to maximize his value.